Mobile marketer Leanplum buys Connecto’s conversational marketing

The acquisition of the Bulgarian firm boosts Leanplum’s goal of making conversations a central feature for maintaining brand relationships with customers.

Mobile marketing firm Leanplum is all about creating relationships between brands and their customers, using in-app messaging, push notifications, email marketing and web push notifications.

This week, the San Francisco-based firm added another capability for improving those relationships, announcing that it has acquired AI-powered conversational marketing firm Connecto.

Based in Bulgaria, Connecto has developed a chatbot builder for such platforms as Facebook Messenger and Viber. Its intention, the company says on its website, is to support 24/7, cost-efficient customer service for frequently asked questions, marketing and re-engagement, with more complicated queries bounced to humans.

About The Author

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.